Wizard

Key Features

Elemental Mastery

Wizards claim dominion over the natural elements of Sanctuary. Crackling flames, bolts of lightning, blasts of ice and whirlwinds are at their command, and this versatility enables them to target foes’ weaknesses and bypass their defenses.

Area Attacks

The battlefield is covered in the forces summoned by a powerful wizard – cones and blasts that hit large groups of creatures at once, rays that punish them for standing close together, and falling rocks that crush those who idle.

Protective Spells

Though not as physically agile or strong as some other heroes, wizards cloak themselves in defensive magics. They can encase their skin in diamonds, create mirror images to befuddle their enemies, and harm or slow those foolish enough to strike at them directly.

Endless Energy

Wizards rarely find themselves without the power of magic. They can nearly always afford to cast their weaker spells thanks to their swiftly-regenerating Arcane Power, and they invoke certain powers more easily as their experience grows.

Resource:
Arcane Power

Unlike more deliberate and cautious magic-users, wizards are lightning rods for Arcane Power. An intense energy courses through them, and they direct it as though it were an extension of their own bodies.

Wizards continually crackle with Arcane Power – it regenerates itself quickly, and so they can call upon their lesser abilities seemingly without end. They are only in danger of depleting their stores of energy when attempting a number of invocations at once.

However, Arcane Power can ravage wizards’ bodies if its use is not carefully paced, so Wizards must endure a cooldown period before repeatedly casting certain potent spells. These spells – conjured meteors falling from the sky, torrents of force that shove multiple foes off their feet, or energy bubbles that halt the flow of time itself – are so powerful that they are worth the wait.

See Also

Wizards are renegade spellcasters who use their bodies as vessels for arcane energy, forsaking the more careful path favored by other magic users. They manipulate all manner of forces to disintegrate, burn, and freeze their foes, and they can control time and light to teleport, create powerful illusions, and deflect oncoming attacks.

Wizards grip wands and staves to focus their less potent magics, blasting at their enemies while gathering the energy or time necessary to destroy them in a dazzling hail of arcane might.

With few exceptions, wizard attacks are conducted at a distance, away from danger. As living artillery, wizards are well suited to relying on long-range destructive power.

Background

“If my old masters could see me now...”

Magic-users hail from academies throughout Sanctuary – from Xiansai to Caldeum – bearing monikers like "sorcerer" and "mage," but those who would refer to themselves with the derogatory epithet "wizard" are as similar to their fellow spellcasters as a lion is to a kitten. Wizards and sorcerers both wield the hidden mysteries of the arcane; there, the commonalities end.

Wizards are known for a number of qualities: not only rebelliousness and flair, but also disdain for the endless lessons and prattling about caution and safety that echo from academic schools of magic. Wizards’ superior attitudes seem to stem from their natural talent – their ability to wrestle the ambient force of magic into submission and direct it to their ends by will and instinct. Any accidents that might occur due to their lack of finesse are unfortunate…but that rarely stops wizards from indulging in their unstable power.

If they can only master their double-edged gift and avoid destroying themselves, these upstart arcane prodigies may be able to finally reach the destiny that they see on the horizon.

Equipment

Though all material items serve as channels for the wizard’s immense power, some have particularly special uses. Wizards wield orbs, which aren’t quite weapons – instead, they’re off-handed supplements that provide them with visions and knowledge to aid their spellcasting, or serve as reservoirs of power. Wizards also equip themselves with traditional (and often enchanted) wands, thin sticks that they use to direct monumental arcane forces at their targets.

Armor Progression

Early wizard armor is quilted wear that would have been out of place in a Caldeum academy, and is equally out of place protecting young wizards from arrows and claws.

Some effort and battlefield experience can rectify the situation, as later armor sets integrate hardened chestplates and greaves with travel tunics and trailing robes.

Truly successful wizards wear the rewards of their questing proudly: flowing capes ornamented in the Xiansai style and crowned headpieces, all carefully placed amidst embossed metal that a soldier would envy.